"These hands once scratched thirty-six Xiangfei bamboos at the bottom of the water." I stared at the palace maid in the bronze mirror who was dyeing koel for me. The rouge on her fingertips was as red as the blood floating in the river. The ice water poured into her lungs when she drowned three days ago suddenly surged in her throat. I grabbed her trembling wrist and said, "The impatiens flowers that Empress Su rewarded were mixed with alum?"
